How cool is ChatGPT?

Below is a chat I just had with ChatGPT. I've decided to stop using Bing and go direct to source instead.

What I'm writing here is a chat between me and ChatGPT where I wanted to work out how to create Swift code to allow a user to enter a time using a date picker then subtract one time from the other and print the results as a real number.

What I like about this is that once the initial code was generated I simply asked it to update the code to add the user input.

I find people who rail on this approach short sited. I know many here will downvote AI generated posts, and I agree if the end goal is to gain more HIVE and game the system. However, I'm enamoured in this ChatGPT approach because trying to find this information myself by sifting through crappy webpages and forum posts is a nightmare.

What I love about this is the explanations given about the code and how polite it is at the end. It really feels like you're chatting to a real person who wants to help. How could anyone be against this?

Anyway, enjoy this little conversation:

create swift code for taking two time entries and removing one from the other to give a time difference in a real number format

ChatGPT
Here's some sample Swift code that takes two time entries in the "HH:mm" format and calculates the time difference in hours as a decimal:

swift
Copy code

func timeDifference(time1: String, time2: String) -> Double? {
    let formatter = DateFormatter()
    formatter.dateFormat = "HH:mm"
    guard let date1 = formatter.date(from: time1),
          let date2 = formatter.date(from: time2) else {
        return nil
    }
    let timeInterval = date2.timeIntervalSince(date1)
    let hours = timeInterval / 3600
    return hours
}

// Example usage:
if let difference = timeDifference(time1: "09:30", time2: "17:45") {
    print("The time difference is \(difference) hours")
} else {
    print("Invalid time format")
}

In this example, the timeDifference function takes two string parameters time1 and time2 in the "HH:mm" format. The function uses a DateFormatter object to convert the string inputs into Date objects. If either of the input strings is in an invalid format, the function returns nil.

The time difference is calculated by taking the difference between the two Date objects using the timeIntervalSince method, which returns the time interval between two dates in seconds. We then divide the time interval by 3600 to convert it to hours. Finally, the function returns the time difference as a Double value.

In the example usage code, we call the timeDifference function with two time values "09:30" and "17:45". If the function returns a valid result, we print the time difference in hours. Otherwise, we print an error message indicating that the time format is invalid.

User
modify the code so that a user can enter the times using a date picker field

ChatGPT
Sure! Here's some modified code that uses UIDatePicker to allow the user to select the times:

swift
Copy code

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var datePicker1: UIDatePicker!
    @IBOutlet weak var datePicker2: UIDatePicker!
    @IBOutlet weak var resultLabel: UILabel!

    @IBAction func calculateButtonTapped(_ sender: UIButton) {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = "HH:mm"
        let time1 = formatter.string(from: datePicker1.date)
        let time2 = formatter.string(from: datePicker2.date)
        if let difference = timeDifference(time1: time1, time2: time2) {
            resultLabel.text = String(format: "%.2f hours", difference)
        } else {
            resultLabel.text = "Invalid time format"
        }
    }

    func timeDifference(time1: String, time2: String) -> Double? {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = "HH:mm"
        guard let date1 = formatter.date(from: time1),
              let date2 = formatter.date(from: time2) else {
            return nil
        }
        let timeInterval = date2.timeIntervalSince(date1)
        let hours = timeInterval / 3600
        return hours
    }

}

In this example, we have a view controller with two UIDatePicker objects and a UILabel to display the result. When the user taps a "Calculate" button, the code reads the selected times from the datePicker objects and passes them to the timeDifference function for calculation.

Note that we've also updated the timeDifference function to take two String parameters instead of Date objects. This is because we're now converting the selected dates to strings using the DateFormatter object.

Hope this helps!